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A protective surround for a print or drawing which is made of board or card and is hinged at the top or the side. Its constituent parts are the support (backboard), to which the work of art is attached, and the window (mat) through which it is viewed. The earliest collectors of drawings, such as the Italian artist and author of the Lives of the Artists, Giorgio Vasari (1511–74), pasted their drawings into albums. In the early 17th century, however, separate mounts were also beginning to be used, particularly in France, and by the middle of the 18th century mount-cutting had became a specialist trade. Today most major museum collections of graphic art are conserved in mounts which are stored in boxes of varying sizes. Modern mounts are always made of acid-free multi-ply board, thereby ensuring the work of art can not be damaged by any impurities in the mount.